HAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — In the unyielding world of the Old Order Amish, very little changes, not the horse and buggy they ride in, not the capes and bonnets they wear.

The Amish home, too, remains a bulwark of simplicity and modesty. Religious tradition in this community in western New York, conservative even by Amish standards, dictates everything from the plumbing (gravity fed, cold water only) to the oil lamps used in place of electricity (kerosene) to the size of window openings (five square feet).

It is those windows that have suddenly thrust the 50 Amish families here into an uncomfortable spotlight, placing them — and town officials — at loggerheads with the state. The problem is a new state code that requires a minimum opening for bedroom windows, meant to ease both the escape of residents during a fire and access by rescuers.

Under the code, which went into effect in January, bedroom windows in newly built houses must measure at least 5.7 square feet. The double-hung, rectangular Amish window, which met the previous code requirement of four square feet, falls short of the new standard, town officials say.

This summer, John H. Rasmussen, Chautauqua's code enforcement officer, went to the home of Amos Byler, one of the three Amish residents seeking permits to build new houses, and measured an existing window. Mr. Rasmussen said that he did not record the exact dimensions but that he remembered that the window was roughly five square feet and just shy of what the state now requires by an inch and a half on each side. "I said, `Amos, you can't do that,' " he recalled. He denied the permits for all three houses.

To the outsider, the solution is obvious: enlarge the windows by a smidgen. "It sounds easy to someone who isn't Amish, but if you're Old Order Amish it's not easy," said Mose Byler, the bishop of one of the two Amish districts in Chautauqua, clad in the traditional male uniform of a navy denim jacket fastened by hooks and eyes. "If you break a tradition, where's the tradition? You're not a faithful member."

The Amish are heartened that the town board is backing them. The board voted unanimously this summer to issue permits for the three houses, illegal windows and all, overruling Mr. Rasmussen. The town supervisor, James R. Willcockson, signed the permits himself in August and September, and the houses are now up and occupied.

Mr. Willcockson said he had spoken with local firefighters who said the difference in size, a fraction of a square foot, would not hinder rescue efforts. Given the rural location of the Amish houses and the lack of phones with which to dial 911, "there is not going to be much left standing" anyway, Mr. Willcockson added.

"It gets to the point where sometimes you have to do what you think is morally right," Mr. Willcockson explained. "We had a lot of support from people in the community. The Amish are a real benefit. They pay their taxes for everything although they don't use a lot of the services. They don't complain. They're just a great bunch of people to have around."

The state sees things differently. In a sternly worded letter to Mr. Willcockson dated Aug. 25, the codes division of the Department of State said the town was "in violation of the state laws and regulations that were enacted for the purpose of protecting the public" from fire and inadequate construction. While highlighting the improper window opening, the state also took issue with the building plans, noting that they lacked the signature of an architect or an engineer.

The letter, which came before construction began, said the town should stop the work on the houses immediately and threatened to begin an audit of the town's code enforcement. The letter noted that the state was working on a change in the new code that would permit houses to be built without plumbing and electricity, subject to local approval, a change that would "favor the Amish tradition." (The old code allowed such exemptions, but the new code does not.)

But there appears to be little wiggle room on window size. The letter concluded by saying that there was "no plan to change such life-safety features as the size of emergency egress and rescue openings," adding that the issue had been studied and adopted internationally.

The Amish could still apply for a variance for a smaller window opening to a regional state review board in Buffalo, as the letter advised. But Mr. Willcockson said that his talks with a midlevel state official this summer left him with the impression that the state would not be inclined to give such a variance.

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Town officials did not respond to the state's letter, and the state recently sent another warning letter reiterating the first, according to Peter Constantakes, a spokesman for the Department of State.

Nationwide, the degree to which the Amish embrace modern ways varies from congregation to congregation. According to Donald B. Kraybill, a senior fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, there are 1,400 local Amish congregations, or districts, in 28 states and Ontario, Canada.

"People think of the Amish as though they are monolithic," said Dr. Kraybill, editor of "The Amish and the State" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). "Each local congregation has autonomy so there are really 1,400 different ways of being Amish."

Some Amish communities use cellphones, in-line skates and automatic milking machines despite adherence to such bedrock traditions as transportation by horse and buggy, schooling only through the eighth grade and the speaking of a Pennsylvania German dialect.

Over in Cattaraugus County, for instance, there are a number of Amish districts willing to tweak their window sizes to conform to the new code, Mr. Rasmussen said.

But ultraconservative communities like the Chautauqua Amish, which exist in only a half-dozen states, have "frozen history around 1915," Dr. Kraybill said. For these more traditional communities, customs like the architecture and décor of houses are considered an integral part of their religious faith and practice. The Amish tradition, which emerged after the Protestant Reformation in Europe, forcefully advocates the separation of church and state, with the corresponding principle that the state should not dictate religious practice.

"It's a cultural clash," Dr. Kraybill said of the dispute between the Chautauqua Amish and the state. "Probably the state bureaucrats who are enforcing this are just doing their job, but they don't understand how it infringes on the religious tradition of this community."

Standing by the roadside in the deepening twilight, Mr. Byler, a father of nine, said he hoped the window conflict could be resolved. He cited the fact that the community's children were allowed to stop their formal education after the eighth grade, a practice that was upheld in 1972 by the United States Supreme Court in Wisconsin v. Yoder.

But Mr. Byler held out the possibility that the Amish families would move elsewhere if the state forced them to install larger windows. "I don't know what we're going to do," he said. "I really don't."

Some local residents hope it does not come to that. While the Amish families make up a small part of the town's population of 4,500, many non-Amish seem to be rallying to their defense. "Sometimes there's too much government interference," said Danielle Morgan, a sales clerk at the Chautauqua Bookstore, referring to the new state code. "I think the town was right. The Amish contribute a lot to the community. They are nice people."